'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown says bald men are still sexy

Karamo Brown is the cheerleader of self-esteem as the cultural expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye, but the truth is that he wasn’t always so confident himself.

In a recent interview with CNN, the reality star, whose new skincare line, Mantl, aims to empower bald and balding men, says he battled severe identity issues when he started losing his hair in his early 20s.

“When I realized my hairline was about to hit the road, it was nerve-wracking,” he said. “Every ad that I had seen on TV late night, there was always the guy with his hair all flowy, and he was pushing it back. [When I started losing my hair] I was like, no longer was I going to be desired, no longer was anybody going to value me because my hairline was creeping away,” adding that “as a young person, you're not taught how to process that. You're not taught how to [love] what naturally happens to you."

"Our hair is such a personal thing to us," he added. "It's how you present yourself to the world. It's how you show your style … When I used to go to the barbershop, when I had my full head of hair, that was the moment that I felt the coolest, I felt the proudest, I felt the sexiest."

The Houston-born Brown first entered the public eye on MTV’s The Real World: Philadelphia, becoming the first out gay Black man cast on a reality show. It was during this time that he began to notice his hair was falling out — prompting him to wear head coverings in attempts to hide his receding hairline.

Over time, he said his hair loss started taking an emotional toll.

"I was like, 'Oh, if I'm going to go out in the gay community, then I need a cool hat to match my outfit so that no one's questioning what's underneath,” he said.

Brown has revealed in the past that even after he was cast on Queer Eye, he used various makeup hacks to give the illusion his hair was thicker than it was.

"My cast knew because I would be driving in the car, and we'd go over a bump and on the roof, my hairline would be [on the ceiling of the car]," he told Allure in 2020. "And the guys would be like, 'Oh, we know where Karamo's at,' because my hairline was covering the roof."

After shooting the second season of Queer Eye, which is now entering its seventh season, he decided to completely shave his head.

"I wish I could say I felt empowered, but I didn't," he explained to CNN of the decision. "I was nervous. I felt uncomfortable. I was like, 'Are people judging me?'"

However, Brown's personal insecurities disappeared when he realized it was all in his mind.

“Everyone immediately was like, 'Oh, your head looks good. Oh, you look smooth. Oh, let me touch your head,'" he explained. "I was like, 'Hold on. I'm not going to do what I did before, which was validate myself through (others') comments. So, I went home and I was like, 'OK, I have to fall in love with this … I spent an hour or two in my bathroom, just rubbing my head, feeling on my head like, 'Oh, you're smooth.' And that's how I fell in love with it.”

“That day forward, I was the happiest man I've ever been, because I was no longer hiding or trying to be something I'm not,” he added.

Brown hopes his own story can be an example for other men who feel invalidated by the world simply because their hair is receding. He also is hoping society can shift the way we view baldness in general.

“When we talk about balding or being bald, it hasn’t changed that much because we still idolize the big buff guys that are bald and sexy and can beat you up,” he said in reference to Hollywood actors like Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis or Vin Diesel. “But we still make fun of the [Seinfeld’s] George Costanza types: it’s funny, you’re the sidekick, and I think that needs to change … you're still sexy, you’re still desirable.”

“Our hair is such a personal thing to us,” he continued. “It’s how you represent yourself, it’s how you show your style,” adding that the societal norms we’ve built around our hair is “wrong and misguided.”

“We shouldn’t be saying to each other, ‘Look at your hair. That’s what’s going to make you beautiful,’” he said. “We should be saying, ‘Look at you, because you are beautiful.’”

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